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Robots at Work

Above, one of Whittaker’s protégés, Sanjiv Singh, works on the first ever pilotless medical evacuation helicopter—an innovation planned to be used by the U.S. Marines.

Singh is a Pittsburgh booster. “The city is sort of in a sweet spot,” he told Thrush. “It has the critical mass of talent you need, it’s still pretty affordable and it has corporate memory—the people here still remember when the place was an industrial powerhouse.”